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fm4 radio in Austria interviews georg                                                     

When people are listening to your music, which is very beautiful in a melancholic way, they always think that already in the morning you cry a few tears into your cup of tea and then, when people meet you it's actually quite a difference. Icelandic people have a very special sense of humor - i would say. Do you agree?

Icelandic people are extremely sarcastic. No we are definitely not as serious as that. We don't share tears with our tea in the morning. We're quite silly people. We have a sense of humor for ourselves. We can laugh at ourselves. We don't take ourselves too seriously. When you live in a country like Iceland where it's dark for like nine months of the year you need to have a sense of humor for that.

But how can you explain this contrast between the humor you have and your artistic result of your music which is deep and melancholic?

I think you can take the things you do very seriously but you must be able to make fun of it as well.

I mean we constantly make fun of our music. Sometimes one might not get the joke but we would all start laughing. That's how we make fun of it.

There's this stereotype in the media that you are sort of introverted, shy, timid people. Are you shy?

I have something called demophobia. I hate being around too many people. Like... I just fall apart. Maybe we're shy in that way. When we are crowded, we just close the door and lock it.

Whenever i hear interviews of you guys, you say that you can't explain what you are doing because it is just coming out of yourself. Some songs contain no lyrics, so could one say that you are looking for a different language than just words.

I think it already existed. People understand music even better than words. They just don't wanna go there, so maybe this is like an experiment now. So without getting any words they have to experience it on their own. I think it's much better this way instead of forcing them into a certain direction, i think it's more personal.

Another thing which is quite striking is that you are breaking all rules of the market, of the industrie and you don't give a shit about the formats for example "radio-songs" have to be like 3 minutes 30 seconds. I once tried to cut svefn-g-englar which is about nine minutes and i just couldn't manage it, which i think is a big compliment for your music, because it's just impossible to cut 'cause there's alway some harmonies going on and if you cut something out you're gonna hear it. You feel that there's something missing.

If you think of any type of art, music is misused for a very long time. If there's a painter and he paints a painting and someone says " Oh, i would like to have this in my gallery but i don't really like this part of it, so can i cut it out please" the painter will say " Oh no this is a painting, this is what i do". I think it's the same with music you know. If you do a ten minutes-song then it's a ten minutes-song. That's how it's supposed to be. And if you really think about it, who came up with three minutes thirty seconds to say that's the right time, why? There is no reason, no.

So finally your success proves that you can do your own thing. You can live on a little island. You can do songs nine minutes long with no lyrics and no titles and it still works.

Yeah, i think you can do almost anything you want. If you have the idea in your head then you can do it.

That's exactly what Ken Thomas our co-producer said. It doesn't matter what it is, whatever you want. Anybody can do anything, if you want to.

I think that's a nice ending.Thanks a lot!

Thank you!